Campaign Arrows Puncture Righty Mag's Lofty Rep

The nasty tone of the presidential campaign dealt a blow to the National Review, considered the print home for conservative intellectuals and a standard-bearer for genteel debate, the New York Times reports. The death of founder William F. Buckley was followed by the ouster of his son Christopher following his endorsement of Barack Obama; now prominent blogger David Frum has departed.

Frum caused a stir by turning against Gov. Sarah Palin, a controversy he told the Times was “symbolic of a lot of differences” between his views and those of National Review’s. The Internet has been at the center of the magazine’s shake-up. “We’ve always had rigorous internal debates,” said editor Rich Lowry. “But the advent of the blogosphere and e-mail and the rest of it have made it easier to blast out their impassioned instant reactions.”
(More National Review stories.)